while he never hesitated to expose her to every infamous reproach or
report, and (apparently) to take a delight in them, yet guarded her
from the direct consequences as if she had been sacred. This her
parents knew very well, and never scrupled to turn to their advantage.
For when hard put to it they would bring her forward between them, set
her before the Abbot, and say, "For the sake of the child, my lord,
let us go." Which the Abbot always did.

Cried Prosper here, "What did he want, this fatherly Abbot?"

"My lord," said Isoult, "he sought to have me put away."

"Well, child," Prosper chuckled, "he has got his wish."

"He wished it long ago, lord," she said; "before I was marriageable."

"And it was not to thy taste?"

"No, lord."

"It was not of that then that thou wert La Desirous?"

"No, lord," said Isoult in a low voice.

"So I thought," was Prosper's comment to himself. "The friar was out."

She went on to tell him of her service with the Abbey as laundry-maid,
then as scullery-girl; then she spoke of Galors. She told him how this
monk had seen her by chance in the Abbey kitchen; how he sought to get
too well acquainted with her; how she had fled the service and refused